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Purchasing gifts for your friends and family during the holiday season can be tricky. You can never be sure whether your friend will like the gift you choose for them, and it seems like they’re always too polite to just tell you what they want upfront. It can be even trickier to pick a present for the artsy person in your life. You might not be totally acquainted with their chosen art form or aesthetic or know what supplies they already own. In the end, it feels easier to err on the side of caution and get them a gift card. But gift cards are lame. So, I’ve put together a little list of gifts your visual artist friends are sure to love this holiday season. I am a big believer in gifting people experiences over things, and all the gifts below will surely provide hours of fun crafting for the sewists and sculptors and the painters and printmakers in your life.
- Miniature Room-Building Kit
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I’ve recently received a miniature room-building kit in a Secret Santa event I participated in, and boy oh boy are they fun to make. These kits come with all the supplies, materials, and instructions you need to make your own miniature room. All kits feature different kinds of rooms, themes, and styles. You can build a quaint library room, a retro-looking kitchen, or a kawaii bedroom. After you’ve completed your little dollhouse, you can proudly display it in your home. To my gleeful surprise, many of these kits also come with functioning light fixtures that you can set up and turn on and off! If you like meticulous, long-term art projects, this is the gift for you.
Purchase on Amazon Canada here. - Needle-Felting Kit
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 I’ve written about the joys of needle-felting before, and I can’t stress enough how fun and easy of a craft it is. Needle-felting essentially involves poking at loose wool with a needle until it forms a shape. It’s like claywork but with fabric, and you can create pretty much any fabric sculpture you want. Needle-felting kits provide you with everything you need to make specific felt creatures, characters, and animals. Albeit time-consuming, needle-felting is good for relieving stress and taking your anger out on inanimate objects. A needle-felting kit is sure to be a hit with any raging artist.
Purchase on Amazon Canada here. - Paint-by-Numbers Kit
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Ah, the paint-by-numbers kit—a classic. Perhaps they’re a bit of a cliché gift at this point, but paint-by-numbers kits remain as popular as ever. They’re a good way to pass the time if you feel like getting creative but aren’t really up for a challenge. I would recommend any paint-by-numbers kit in the classic art genre, like this one featuring Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888).
Purchase on Amazon Canada here. - Mini Canvas and Easel Set
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If you couldn’t already tell, I have a slight obsession with all things miniature, which is why I could not resist including this miniature canvas and easel set, complete with paint and brushes as well. I don’t know what it is exactly, but something about real-life objects made on a comically small scale sparks joy for me. Maybe it’s because they’re adorable, or perhaps it’s because I crave a sense of control over reality. Eh, who knows. Perhaps this kit will spark joy for you too. Challenge yourself to make a full exhibition of miniature paintings, I dare you.
Purchase on Amazon Canada here. - Beginner Calligraphy Set
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Last but not least, a calligraphy set for beginners would make an excellent gift for any artist. The one below includes everything you need to get your calligraphy on, from pens to practice sheets. I took up hand-lettering a few years back and have found it to be such a useful skill when making holiday and birthday cards, or just when I get bored and feel like doodling in class. It also seems to impress people and confer upon me many a compliment, which is always a plus.Â
Purchase on Amazon Canada here.
There you have it, folks: five holiday gifts for your artsy fartsy friends that aren’t gift cards. From all of us here at Her Campus UWindsor, we wish you the happiest of holidays and a new year filled with lots more crafting and creativity!